Technical multijet issue

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Technical multijet issue

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Apr 19, 2012
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hi guys , I now have an issue that when on the motorway doing 70ish in 5 gear if I put my foot down to accelerate heavily the power drops into limp mode and engine mngment light comes on. If I turn the ignition off and then restart the engine the power is normal but eml stays on . If I leave the car for a while the management light stays off. Seems fine on hard acceleration through the gears though, any ideas?
 
There are a couple of issues that could cause this.

Most likely it's a turbo over boost problem due to carbon building up around the wastegate and jamming it closed.
So when you accelerate hard, the ECU detects the inlet pressure as being to high and trips limp mode.

You can manually work the actuator arm back and forth to free it off.

This is the arm you need to work, it may be quite tight and need a bit of force, but not enough to bend it!

The arm outlined in Red is what you are trying to free off


You should be able to get at it from above, but space and access is very tight, try soaking it in something like duckoil or WD40 first.
Then you will need to lever it with a screwdriver, it should when free move around a quarter turn, so don't force it over too far, gently work it back and forth, over and over again.

In blue is the wastegate inside, this is stuck fast with soot and crud, you can see how the arm, in red again works it open and closed.


Once it's freed off and stopped overboosting and tripping limp, best defence to keep it working is the odd Italian tune up every now and then.

https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/354492-1-3-multijet-turbo-wastegate-seized-2.html

Another issue could be the EGR valve is jammed or failed, but they generally give running problems all round or on transition between lighter and heavier throttle positions.
Sometimes they can be cleaned out, but it's more common to replace it.

Try the turbo wastegate first though.
 
Last edited:
Hi, thanks for your help, I will have a go at the wastegate first and let you know how it goes. Cheers again sean
 
Not many facts to go on yet, but do you get the same issue in the other gears above, say, 3000 revs?
Has the car been serviced recently? Has the air filter/fuel filter been changed recently?
Does this fault occur every time or is it intermittent?
The more info, the more accurate the diagnosis - otherwise it's just like shooting in the dark - you might get lucky or you might faff around with nix to show for it.
 
Hi , the car seems to drive normally at other times. I can boot it through the gears taking the revs up to 4000 no problem, it's just when I am in 5th doing 70 ish and I put my foot to the floor to accelerate it throws up the fault. Car was serviced in October in the uk and I am down in Portugal now so not like it's cold. The temp gauge has also been dropping down bit during normal driving too from where it normally sits in the centre but just a little, maybe it's linked to my other problem ?
 
The horse is well bolted on this one and the car is probably on blocks by now I'm thinking but I've a bit to add - plus a request of course!!

I've a 1.3 Multijet Idea which was used for a number of year by my parents. I would say that there was no heavy acceleration with them. When I and siblings drove the car, the Engine Management light would come on when trying to accelerate more heavily - a light right foot would keep the light out. One important thing is that the light would remain on for 3 or 4 starts and then reset itself and back to normal until the heavy right foot again. It happened in higher gears and was like this for years. I've just sorted it out recently by freeing up the waste gate as so well explained by Goudrons.

I'm back to the forum now because I've the light on again and this time there is no autoresetting. So I think the problem is elsewhere.

I've got a bluetooth ELM327 device and tried connecting into the car but it shows no life at all. I've tried it in an Opel and Nissan and it works to the point that I see a red LED lighting in those cars but nothing in the Fiat. Any suggestions?

WRT the actual problem: The output pipe from the turbo was left loose by me following other work - but I don't see what effect this would have had by way of engine management light. It was the cause of the car hunting a bit on the motorway but I've just tightened the turbo connection now and the car is driving perfectly. Maybe this did cause the error and it just needs to be reset. Although the car didn't start as usual this morning - a significant miss for about 1 minute. BTW, the light came on in town traffic and only yesterday. The turbo loose connection was a few weeks ago - a built up issue??

If I could get the ELM327 working, I might be able to clear the code and see from there.

Thanks
 
I had this exact problem with mine and it was the wastegate sticking. I do believe it was goudrons who advised me too. Get underneath, I had to use a crow bar to shift mine but once it moved it was clear it had been jammed as it was easy to shift after that. Give it a good squirt of release oil after you've freed it and give it the occasional Italian tune up every now and again and you'll have no further issues.
 
just an update on the new issue. Elm327 wasn't pushed in far enough so didn't work. When pushed home it worked. Tried a couple of apps with it and looks like communication to the phone works but not to the car. I'm going to borrow another plug and see if that might get a few codes read / cleared and go from there.
 
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